


With only strangers watching

by crimsonkitty



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: Baseball, Dancing, Gen, Introspection, M/M, Pre-Slash, RPF, Short, St. Louis Cardinals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-15
Updated: 2012-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-18 16:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/563231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsonkitty/pseuds/crimsonkitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris doesn’t know how it starts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With only strangers watching

**Author's Note:**

> Short and not all that silly. Inspired by comments during the 2012 postseason about Chris Carpenter dancing during rain delays. Title from "Antebellum" by Vienna Teng

Chris doesn’t know how it starts.

Adam is flushed and just _right there_. In his space and his walls saying, “Come on, Carp. Come on, come on,” over and over again and Chris must lose himself somewhere in the lights because Adam is pulling him up by the arm like he said yes.

Two dozen sets of eyes snap to them, laughing and burning and Chris imagines them all on fire, a swift and sweet retribution.

He never learned the chicken dance when he was younger and says as much when he recognizes the song suddenly playing from the speakers in the corner. Half the clubhouse gasps until there’s sarcasm dripping down the walls in cardinal red. But Adam grins like the kid he hasn’t been in years and says, “Don’t worry. I’ll show ya.”

He does. It spirals. Motherfuck, does it ever.

It’s the Macarena, the twist, the foxtrot or something, and once a very spirited round of YMCA that involved the entire clubhouse and most of the stadium outside.

They don’t do it every day and not on days when either of them is starting. Sometimes Adam is kept up all night by the new baby and he barely has the energy to stand, let alone flail around the locker room like a monkey with something to prove.

Sometimes Chris will get into moods where the thought of another person touching him makes his skin crawl. People know not to talk to him on those days. Adam will just sit quietly tying his shoes, and Chris can pretend he’s still one whole person. 

But every once in a blue moon, Adam will be there inside his space with that wide grin made out of metal and Georgia sunshine. Something Jesus couldn’t touch.

He will say, “C’mon, Carp. Come on,” over and over, waving his fingers until Chris slaps them away and smiles.

When Adam asks, Chris says yes. Because Chris is used to losing himself.


End file.
